Fruit Tree Grease

Grease for Fruit Trees

Fruit Tree Grease is used on older fruit trees with ridged bark where Greasebands are not so effective, because pests can crawl under the band.

Each 200g pot of grease is enough to protect 1-2 mature trees (it depends how thick the trunk is) for a year.

Like Greasebands, Fruit Tree Grease is used for two main reasons. The first is to trap a wide variety of winter moths before they can lay their eggs on fruit trees. The wingless females climb fruit trees in early winter from November onwards to lay their eggs near dormant fruit and leaf buds. When these hatch, the caterpillars eat leaves and fruit. A band of fruit tree grease (which is extremely sticky) around the trunk of the tree above grass and weed height either deters or traps them

Fruit tree grease also catches in earwigs in spring and summer and prevent ants from farming and protecting aphids and scale insects.

Using Fruit Tree Grease against Winter Moths

Full instructions are on every pot of fruit tree grease, but put simply a ring of grease is smeared around the trunk of each tree so that crawling insects are prevented from climbing the tree to lay their eggs. They stick in the grease and die.

Fruit Tree Grease and Earwigs and Ants

To trap earwigs, ants and other crawling pests, you can apply fruit tree grease in exactly the same way, but between May and September. Each pot of Vitax Fruit Tree Grease contains 200g of extremely sticky "grease". We recommend that you use our Greasebands instead for younger trees with smooth bark. In addition to the pot contents you will need an old kitchen knife or an old, small painting brush. There is no pesticide involved (the grease is based on rapeseed oil) so our fruit tree grease can be used by organic growers as well as with other methods of control.

You can buy other garden chemicals and fertilisers here.